Olympus Mju 700 review

A lightweight offering with extra resolution up its sleeve

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Our Verdict

A decent enough camera but can't compete with the real big-hitters

For

7Mp resolution helps with zoom

Against

Image quality not the best

The Mju 700 offers a 7Mp CCD - that's a lot of pixels for a compact camera, and means your images can be blown up some 15-20% larger than 6Mp or 5Mp cameras. Unfortunately, it creates files the size of the Isle of Wight, and unless you plan to print poster-size images, you probably won't notice the difference anyway.

But the Mju 700 also features an innovative low-light mode called BrightCapture, and it claims to be weatherproof. It stood up to light drizzle during testing, but we stopped short of giving it a full dunk in a bucket of Tizer to emulate heavy conditions.

It's uncomfortable in the hand, feels more like plastic than metal, but at least it slips neatly into your pocket. The controls are not the most straightforward, and choosing from the 23 scene modes might restrict its use as an action-shot camera.

The large display's image quality is also slightly below par compared to the Sony or Kodak models, although the images it produces bear close scrutiny.

Colours are cool and natural; the 7Mp CCD is definitely advantageous if you frequently zoom and crop into your images, and contrast is generally good, but can overpower some images at times, with some dark and bright areas a little bleached out. The BrightCapture works well, albeit suffering a little motion blur if you're prone to hand-shake.

In solus, the Mju 700's high resolution and easily pocketable nature make it appealing, but it's outgunned by classier cameras.